Questions about RAM

I recently purchased a Dell Vostro 1500 with 512mb Ram and am deciding to upgrade the Ram. I just have a few questions...

1. Will the brand of Ram matter to the performance of the laptop? Will I be able to notice it? If so, which company is the best?

2. I have heard that dual channel speeds up ram, which would be faster? 2gb (2x1gb) or 2.5 gb?

3. Which type of ram is compatible with my system? I know its DDR2-667mhz, but theres also PC 5300 and PC 5400. What's the difference?

4. Besides newegg, is there any other place to buy ram for cheap prices?


thank you

 

1) Brand matters to some degree. Reliability will be the biggest thing, not performance. You are not going to notice the difference between most kinds of memory (at any given speed) in real world usage.

2) Dual channel is the way to go. Ideally, grab two matching sticks of memory. I would recommend getting two 1GB sticks of DDR2-667 laptop SODIMMs.

3) "DDR2-xxx" and "PCxxxx" are two different ways of referring to the speed of a memory module. DDR2-533 is PC4200, DDR2-667 is PC5300, DDR2-800 is PC6400, and so on. For your system, you need DDR2-667/PC5400.

4) There are zillions of vendors...too many to list.

 

PC 5300 is for desktops, PC 5400 is laptops if I'm not mistaken.

 

PCxxxx is for ddr1
PC2-xxxx is ddr2.

If you have ddr2, make sure it ddr2 or PC2-xxxx. And when you get ram, make sure they all match in speed, or else it would run the slower of the two.

 

You'll often see DDR2 modules labelled simply as PC6400, without the 2- separating the PC from the bandwidth number. It's confusing as hell for beginners, because it can easily be mixed up with regular DDR. Generally though you'll be able to tell which is which from the speed, since regular DDR doesn't come in 6400 bandwidths.

 

thanks for the help

 

Whaaat? Where did you get this crazy notion from?

 

5300 is laptop, 5400 is desktop. make sure it's 200-pin SODIMM

 

that aint true u can use both 5300 and 5400 in laptops! theres really no difference, stick with 5300.. theres more of it, and its cheaper!

 

Both versions are available for notebooks as well. Basically the PC5400 memories are tested to run at max 675MHz(338) which equates to a max bandwidth of 5400MB/s(hence PC5400). The PC5300 memories are tested to run at max 667MHz(333) which results in max bandwidth of 5336MB/s(hence PC5300). Ofcourse in real world there is no difference between these two since you will most likely be limited to DDR2 667 speeds by the chipset/FSB. Plus the extra 5Mhz even if it is usable doesnt make any noticable difference. Its all just marketing to lure unsuspecting buyers into buying 'supposedly faster' PC2 5400 memory at a higher price point.

 

yeah both 5300 and 5400 are for laptops. they are the same thing. just stick with 5300.